A very interesting take on the beginnings of the Oxford English Dictionary!

I enjoyed how Pip Williams brought to life the real women behind the dictionary whilst weaving in the story of Esme. Esme grows up around the dictionary work but feels women’s words are largely ignored by the male dominated staff and wants to change this.

I would definitely recommend this to fans of historical fiction.

Esme a young girl spends time in the office of her father who is collecting words to include into a dictionary.
I’m sorry I found this story slow and it failed to hold my interest.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

This interesting story that covers more than 100 years starting in 1882 when we meet Esme Nicoll who lives with her father Harry. He is a lexicographer who works on a dictionary in a corrugated iron shed, grandly called the Scriptorium. The story is based around true events, the central one being the state of the creation of the Oxford University Press’s New English Dictionary
Esme spends her days beneath the sorting table in the “scrippy”, where the lexicographers sort and assess the potential contributions sent to Murray by volunteers following his worldwide appeal for words to be included in the new dictionary Over several years, Esme secretes a trunkful of words that do not get included because of her actions as she says My case is like the Dictionary, I thought. Except it’s full of words that no one wants or understands, words that would be lost if I hadn’t found them.

The novel is set mainly in Oxford, but events occur in Bath, Shropshire, and Adelaide, Australia.
It is a long read that needs to be concentrated on. There is an over riding sense of mystery as well and well worth reading it all.

Esme is the daughter of one of the academics helping to compile the first edition of the New Oxford Dictionary to replace the Samuel Johnson version. The story starts towards the end of the 19th century when Esme is four years old. Her mother has died and she is being brought up by her father. The dictionary is being compiled in a converted shed at the end of the lead lexicographer’s garden and Esme spends her days under the table where the researcher/compilers work. The narrative follows the development of the dictionary by relating Esme's life through to her death in the middle of the 20th century, including her links with the women’s suffrage movement and the effect of the 1st World War.
This is a most unusual story and although the plot may sound rather dull, it really isn’t.. The narrative is wholly engaging and the historical insights and perspectives are fascinating.

Though slow at times, once I was fully immersed in this story I found it extremely unique and interesting. I loved the exploration of words and language through a feminist standpoint and that it was based on many real people who worked on the first edition of the english dictionary. The amount of research that went into it shines through the writing!

I thoroughly enjoyed this warm tale of how the Oxford English Dictionary was produced. Fascinating detail based in fact, sympathetic and interesting characters and, of course, the theme of injustice towards women. One day I'll read a book about a world in which we are equal!

Sat watching the sunset on 2020 atop a mountain, finishing this absolute beauty of a book. Inspiring, intelligent & gives a voice to the silenced. Endearing characters weave together historical fact and the language of culture across continents. If you love words, you will love this!

The story of how the dictionary came to be! I was fascinated from the start and if you love words and everything about them then this is the book for you. Fascinating. Loved it.

This was lovely! The story of the creation of the dictionary is fascinating and the female angle is really interesting and important. The timeline of the suffragettes and the war added depth and detail.

This book follows Esme from when she was a girl into adulthood in the turn from the 19th to the 20th century. Her father was a lexicographer helping to compile the Oxford dictionary.

The book is centered around the role of women in society, and also touches on the effects of war on people. The most interesting element for me was the discussion of how words are classified and how some are deemed worth of including in the dictionary while others are not. That gathering and classification of words is used as aliteracy device to help the storytelling, which worked really well for me.

Moreover, the setting of Oxford, and in particular Esme’s house and the people around her make for a very atmospheric, cozy, heartwarming read. I would recommend this book if you are looking for something warm that would make you feel good while still engaging your mind on a topic that, like me, you might have never considered before.

Tender, intelligent and utterly engrossing, this novel delivered on all its promises and more.

Esme is a young woman living in England during a time of great social change: the campaign for female suffrage, the birth of socialism and the impact of the First World War. She spends her childhood playing beneath the sorting table at the Scriptorium, while above her a group of fusty academic men compile the first Oxford English dictionary. As she grows, Esme discovers that there are many words missing from the dictionary. They have been rejected either because they are deemed unseemly or irrelevant, or because they are only used in spoken language and have no literary quote to help define them. Significantly, many of these words are used by working-class women. In response to this injustice, Esme resolves to create her own secret dictionary of ‘lost’ words.

This may sound like dry subject matter, but in fact, the novel is character-led, full of emotion and compassion. It tells the story of a girl growing up without a mother and how she seeks to replace her through relationships with her father and various women in her life. It’s also about Esme’s understanding of sexual love and her resistance to social conformity. She has an interesting attitude towards the suffragette movement, which in principle she supports. Esme doesn’t chain herself to railings, but is no less a revolutionary.

The authenticity of the setting and the presence of real-life figures makes it clear that the novel is a blend of fact and fiction. The more I read, the more I wanted to know how ‘true’ it was. Fortunately, I managed to suppress my curiosity until I’d finished, by which time Esme felt as real to me as any historical person.

I will be buying this book for all my friends.

Brilliant. Partly based on a true story. Anyone who likes language will enjoy this book about the characters ho shaped the Oxford dictionary. In a time when the written word was exotic and letter writing a thing of beauty as well as the only way to communicate over distance.

This book is really about the lot of women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

It starts quite slowly, with the young Esme getting involved in her father's work for Dr James Murray, who is compiling the Oxford English Dictionary. She is fascinated by the words included in the dictionary, and by those that are left out. She decides to look for words, stealing some of those discarded then, as she grows up, finding words that are in common usage that don't make the dictionary because they are not written down; many of these words are used by working women, and many of them are crude, or even shocking in society at that time.

The book travels through women's suffrage and the First World War, weaving fact and fiction together skilfully.

Although it took a while to get into, it Is a great read, with many engaging characters. Definitely worth the effort.

Set In Oxford, we are introduced to young Esme, a word thief.. The words are taken from the Scriptorium. and

develop into her personal collection, which helps her understand. her world.

The creation of the OED., alongside Esme;s

As a motherless child, raised by her devoted father, we share her

upbringing, trials, and joys.. Her experiences of school, friends, suffrage, and war all contribute to her lexicon..

The book has wonderful descriptions and is beautifully written.. A fascinating literary adventure,

Oh. My. Goodness. This book is just perfect.

Esme aged 6 is hiding under the desk of her lexicographer father while he writes words for the new venture of Dr Murray - The Dictionary. A slip flutters down with a word on and Esme pockets it. This is the beginning of her journey and obsession with collecting lost words.

Set against a very factual backdrop, the amount of historical research that’s gone into this is quite staggering, Esme’s relationship with the England language is influenced by the Woman’s Suffrage movement.

Esme discovers that vast amounts of words were discounted from the dictionary as they didn’t fit with the experiences of the upper class, white, Victorian men’s language. This book shows her work to add some balance to that bias.

The storyline, the characters, the setting, the history, the raw emotions and everything in between is just beautifully written. I loved how well Pip Williams’ fictional main character’s feminist storyline was interwoven into a factual timeline of events.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. What a lovely enjoyable read this was, great characters and a great storyline.

Following the real time line of the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Dictionary Of Lost Words follows the fictional character, Esme. Her love for words is limitless, and as she grows that the restrictions and curation of the dictionary leaves so many word, and people, behind. Who will collect the words men don't see as important or scholarly, and ensure their importance is documented, if not her?

I loved this novel so much, it had a bit of a slow start, but the story Williams has woven around the real world timeline of the dictionary is something really special. It's a subject I've not really seen be brought up before; that with men filling almost all roles of scholars, authors, and others of note in the 19th and 20th centuries - I must add, more specifically, white, upper class men - a lot of language was likely lost. Words left in the markets, and the factories to fade into extinction. This subject really struck a cord with me, as I think it will with many others. The story around this concept is also so touching and well developed, even though it was the secondary purpose of the novel. With the publishing of the dictionary intersecting with both women's suffrage and the first World War, there's a lot of challenge to the status quo happening. I think Esme is really in-tune with this shifting in society throughout, and the world validates the importance her collected words hold for her and other women.

I've already pre-ordered a copy for when this book is published, and I have a feeling it's going to be a best seller.

I enjoyed this well-written book and found it interesting. However, I didn't really warm to Esme, and she never really came alive for me. I felt that the author started with the idea of "women's words" and fitted the story around that, and as a result it all seemed a bit forced. I'm sure this will be a popular book though, especially with book groups.

I don't think I have the words to say how much I loved the utterly beautiful and totally wondrous The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. I sobbed throughout and I felt each of Esme's successes and losses most keenly, but if you ask me what it's about I'd struggle to tell you. It's about beautiful relationships (family, friends, lovers), it's about suffrage, it's about loss, but most of all, it's about the power of words, and wow, what power are in these words. There's so much I want to say, but I don't want to give any spoilers. It's not out until April but oh my goodness preorder it and devour it (and then tell me how much you love it please!). Definitely one of my favourite books of the year. Thank you @netgalley for this incredible arc.

It feels strange to imagine the dictionary being put together; collecting each word in the English language and attaching meaning to it, ensuring all variations of meaning are included, and deciding which words are important enough to include, and which aren’t. A relentless, thankless, and most likely never ending task.

Esme’s father works in the Scriptorium, helping to complete this mammoth piece of work. We follow Esme from childhood, sitting underneath the table examining the employees’ shoes, to adulthood, working herself towards the completion of the dictionary.

Her focus soon rests on the words the men have chosen to omit from the dictionary, rather than those they choose to keep. Slang words, swear words, words only used by women, words given a different meaning by women, words the men simply did not believe warranted a home within their great work. It was gorgeous to follow along with Esme as she collected these lost words, speaking with women from different classes, all with different experiences, and recording the way they spoke. There’s some really good commentary here on who gets to decide which words are important, or even who gets to define them.

The first third of the novel was slow, and difficult to engage with. Williams takes her time in setting her scene, and establishing her characters, but I did feel it could have benefitted from a little bit of urgency. The chapter titles help us understand which part of history we’re exploring, but the prose itself doesn’t lend itself to historical fiction until further in the book. Until then (unless you’re well-versed on the history and origins of the dictionary), we could have been dealing with any moment in time.

As we progressed, the plot became much more engaging, however Williams had an odd tendency to create events within the plot which we weren’t given permission to experience first-hand. There were some really important things which happened, and we didn’t learn of them until we stumbled across a memory, or a bit of dialogue. Although I believe interpretation is important, and being modest as an author can lead to some real intrigue, I really felt some of these events had enough merit to be laid out in full for the reader.

Nevertheless, a wonderful premise, and a heartbreaking view of an entire life dedicated to the importance of words.